Giles Frasier: St. Paul’s cleric resigns over Occupy movement

Giles Fraser, the canon chancellor at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, resigned in support of the Occupy protests that are taking place in front of the church. 

He announced via Twitter that he was stepping down "with great regret and sadness" after splitting with church leaders over protesters' right to camp out in front of the famous cathedral, reports Slate. 

The Occupy London Stock Exchange protest is an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York. Various factions of OWS have started around the world.

Fraser believed that the protesters who arrived on the steps of the cathedral two weeks ago should be left alone.

St. Paul's dean, on the other hand, closed the church on Friday after citing safety concerns, reports the Daily Telegraph.

CNN reports that the cathedral is speaking with lawyers on legal methods to evict the demonstrators.

In response to the dean, a demonstrator told Time that he can't believe the church is motivated by safety concerns as protesters have complied with the fire safety officials' requests.

Fraser disagreed with the church's decision and decided he did not want to be a part of it.

"I cannot support using violence to ask people to clear off the land," he said. "It is not about my sympathies or what I believe about the camp. I support the right to protest and in a perfect world we could have negotiated. But our legal advice was that this would have implied consent."